Jerusalem.

[Sidenote: _Bulgars Attack Crusaders_]

The march, which began in piety and was conducted for a time with due
consideration for the rights of others, soon, almost of necessity,
became a raid on the property of the people through whose lands they
passed. Bulgarian authority not being able to supply provisions to
Walter's army, they foraged along their lines of march, and, when
resisted, burned houses and slew their inmates. The Bulgars answered in
kind; attacked the Crusaders when loaded down with booty; penned some
scores of them in a church to which fire was promptly put, and one
hundred and forty were cremated. Walter did not stop to attempt to
revenge, but dragged after him a starving and diminishing army.

[Sidenote: _Crusaders Learn Something_]

The Governor of Nissa, moved by their condition, refreshed them with
food, warmed them with clothing, and strengthened them with arms. Taught
by the Bulgarian lesson, they passed through Thrace without thieving,
and came at last, worn and miserable, to the walls of Constantinople,
where Alexius permitted them to await the arrival of Peter and his army.

[Sidenote: _Peter's Brave Follies_]

[Sidenote: _A Devastated Country_]

Peter and his army passed safely through Germany, but behaved worse and
fared worse than Walter and his following. The frontiers of Hungary were
decorated with the bodies of Crusaders hanging at the gates of Semlin.
Immediately Peter ordered war. The people of the city fled to a hill,
with the Danube on one side and a forest on the other. They were driven
into the river, four thousand being put to the sword. Belgrade first
knew of the battle by the corpses floating past her walls. Naturally, on
penetrating further into Bulgaria, the Crusaders found only abandoned
cities, food carried away, and as much as was possible, the road bereft
of support of any kind. At Nissa they found a well-fortified city, where
Bulgarians looked down from the walls on the Crusaders, and these last
did not dare to try their strength on such an obstacle.

[Sidenote: _A Great Loss_]

At Nissa they seemed to have obtained supplies and marched on. Some
Germans paid off real or fancied scores by burning some mills on the
Nissava River. The Nissans fell on Peter's rear guard, killed all who
fought, captured two thousand carriages and many prisoners. Peter turned
back immediately, and flamed with wrath as he saw the dead who lay near
Nissa.

[Sidenote: _A Tar